Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals

A biographical dictionary of evangelicals faces a serious problem of definition and the editor of this one tackles it bravely in his introduction. Dr Larson quotes two very different definitions from his consulting editors. According to D.W. Bebbington's theological definition, evangelicals show four characteristics: conversionism, activism, biblicism and crucicentrism. Mark Noll adopts a more pragmatic approach: evangelicalism is an identifiable network and those people who can be identified as part of it are evangelicals. Dr Larson uses both definitions, perhaps leaning more to the pragmatic one.

Unusually for a dictionary of this kind, living persons are included. In general subjects...